New streetlights along Cascade Avenue in Sisters are bright enough to enhance safe driving and walking, but they’re too bright to meet the demands of the city’s dark-skies ordinance.

It’s a case of competing goods, where the need for drivers and pedestrians to see clearly can be at odds with preserving a more natural view and keeping the stars visible.

The lights were installed earlier this year by the Oregon Department of Transportation as part of a major upgrade of the main street through Sisters. The $6.6 million project had been in the planning stages for years, jointly funded by ODOT and the city.

It involved rebuilding the road and adding wider sidewalks and curb extensions, plus new landscaping and lighting. The work launched in March and was mostly finished by mid-May, timed to avoid the heavy tourist season so important to Sisters’ businesses.

Protecting those businesses was a major worry in planning the project. Much of the work was done at night and was split into two sections to lessen the impact. Cascade Avenue has the rare circumstance of being at the center of the retail part of the community while also serving as U.S. Highway 20, a major thoroughfare for those just passing through.

Although city representatives had been extensively involved in selection of the lights, said ODOT spokesman Peter Murphy, the focus was on the look of the fixtures rather than the brightness. Only after the lights went up did residents and officials realize they didn’t comply with the city ordinance.

The problem can be resolved by adding shrouds to redirect the light downward, Murphy said. Two different types of shrouds were installed a couple of weeks ago at the intersection of Cascade and Larch Street. Once the public has a chance to react, the City Council will let ODOT know its preference.

Murphy described the problem as a minor technical issue within the much larger project and said the city and ODOT are working cooperatively to correct it so the lights comply with the city’s ordinance. He said he didn’t know the cost of the shrouds, but the original 24 lights cost $11,000 each.

It’s gratifying to see a large state agency and a small city work cooperatively to mitigate the impacts of such a large project. We hope solving the lighting problem is the last of the conflicts they must resolve.